Fine purveyor of ye olde poppycock…

Poster Judgment: The Final Frontier

I like movie posters… aka one-sheets. I’ve always been a fan of well made art, and yes, poster making can be an amazing art form. However, I am loathe to judge a movie on it’s poster, much the way we always say not to judge a book by it’s cover. The last two days have seen a flurry of judgment over two new posters… Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to the awesome J. J. Abrams reboot of Star Trek, and Man of Steel, Zack Snyder’s attempt at a Superman reboot. The only two things the posters have in common is that both franchises have massive… and I mean MASSIVE fan bases who seem to be picking about every detail these images seem to hint at.

Star Trek Into Darkness looks interesting… in that it looks mysterious, and let’s be honest, mystery is often better than the answers we get. Who is that trench coated figure? Is that Benedict Cumberbatch? Why is London in shambles? Yes, that is definitely London, just look at the architecture. We know virtually nothing about the story… we know nothing about the villain… anticipation is high. A great tease of a poster. I’m still iffy on that title… a bit too “Turn off the Dark” for my tastes.

Man of Steel gives us a confusing image. We all know and love Superman… we know this film is going to be a reboot from the beginning… but we don’t know of any situation where the Man of Steel himself is cuffed by the military. Unless those are Kryptonite cuffs, I don’t see how that works in any way shape or form. I’ve already had one discussion today about his lack of red underwear… I support the decision to ditch the support, so to speak. The question I posed to him was, “would you want to see a 21st. century Batman in his original costume?” I ask the same with Superman… the undies looked antiquated and silly in my opinion.

The Star Trek poster at least gives us a clue into the fact that something terrestrial will be going on, a slightly different tack for a Star Trek film, and that villain looks nothing like Khan, the rumored baddie. The Man of Steel poster tells us even less. Someone has captured Superman… shadowy military types… and somehow, he’s shiny. I hope he doesn’t sparkle ala Twilight…

Sorry, can’t find an actual Star Trek Into Darkness trailer that isn’t fan made or questionable in origin… enjoy the Man of Steel trailer instead.